Dec. 23, 2013

In this photo made available, Oct. 9, 2012, by the Minnesota Department of Health shows shows vials of the injectable steroid product made by New England Compounding Center implicated in a fungal meningitis outbreak that were being shipped to the CDC from Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Minnesota Department of Health, File) / ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Detroit Free Press Medical Writer

Owners of a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy that distributed steroid shots tainted with deadly fungal meningitis last year have reached a preliminary agreement that would establish a settlement fund of $100 million or more for victims of the tainted injections, according to lawyers who will help oversee the fund.

“It’s not perfect justice,” said Southfield attorney Marc Lipton, who represents clients and is a member of the creditors committee in a bankruptcy case against the now-bankrupt New England Compounding Center, or NECC.

“But whatever it lacks in perfection, it makes up for in the fact we were able to get it together in a year,” he said.

The pact must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff in Boston.

The tainted steroid shots were administered for back pain, but instead set off a deadly outbreak of fungal meningitis, which caused at least 64 deaths in 20 states. Michigan was among the hardest hit after injections were administered in clinics in Macomb, Livingston, Genesee and Grand Traverse counties.

The 264 Michigan cases included 19 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under the settlement terms, NECC denies any liability or wrongdoing, according to the law firm Brown Rudnick, which represents the creditors committee.

The settlement, if approved, is only part of the effort to find answers and compensation for victims and families. Medical clinics and those who provided equipment or services in the process of manufacturing the steroids still face lawsuits. A federal investigation will determine if there was any criminal misconduct.

Bill Baldiga, an attorney for the creditors committee, said the settlement could establish a platform on which civil settlements with clinics, hospitals and others might be based.

“This is an important first step,” he said.

Mary Plettl, 88, who lived outside of Lansing, got an injection Aug. 16. She died Nov. 3 after developing abscesses and tremors. The pain was ceaseless, and she grew confused, said her daughter, Peggy Nuerenberg of Farmington Hills.

“It was a very, very bad death. It was pitiful,” Nuerenberg said.

Nuerenberg said she’s torn about the proposed settlement.

“I don’t know how I feel about it. Nothing will bring her back ... but I don’t want their suffering to be in vain,” she said of the victims.

She wants those responsible for her mother’s death to pay money for the suffering and then “go to jail. In that order.”